Re: [Bubba] ARRIVED

That goes right back to the rent before you buy old song. Six months of renting should give you time to meet and get to know some of your potentail new neighbors and maybe find out a little extra about that perfect house you've got your eye on.

Re: [Bubba] ARRIVED

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Hi Kip,

I think Pete is correct about the old Police Station in Chapala. And the area between it and the edge of Chapala headed back toward Ajijic is notorious for shifting.

One of the local realtors (you'll quickly discover who she is after you begin looking down here) sold a house in the area to an older couple from the U.S. and it immediately began deteriorating due to shifting earth. Floors buckled, outside stairs collarsed. roof leaked, walls cracked, etc.

My advice? Talk to LOTS of folks before you choose either a realtor or an area in which to buy or rent.

Just like back where you're moving from.

And Shoe, congrats! And Bubba's advice regarding due diligence on your part is dead-on!

Re: [Uncle Donnie] ARRIVED

That sounds like the same house that she was telling us about. Lets hope there aren't that many that fit that description.

You're absolutely right about Mississippi. It's only been a few years since they've started doing building permits and inspections. That doesn't completely solve the problem unfortunately. The local inspector here is a heck of a nice guy but he's from a large family and a lot of them are builders. He would just hate for the family to be upset with him because he didn't approve one of his many nephews' projects.

It takes a really looooong time for things to change in the south , if ever.

Re: [Kip] ARRIVED

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Kip:

Now, lissen here. I know your heart is in the right place, but to single out Mississippi as corrupted by "family values" misdirects the issue and, therefore, confuses people who have traditionally elevated their own self-esteem by looking down on others they presume to be inferior because of their geographical origin. One of the major decisions we do not make in our lives is where we are born. You and I try mightily to be humorous on the forums but we also know that southerners or even Oregonamisssissippians tend toward self-flagellation brought about by years of living with two things I list in order of importance:

(1) Fear of community rejection.

(2) Fear of spending eternity in hell which, I presume, does not mean constant contact with Cousin Betty Sue and Uncle Jim Bob in an eternal and repetitious unctuous ode to the founder of themselves.

Now, those of you planning to move down here to Mexico remember this:

Family values corrupt everywhere whether in Istanbul or Fargo. If you are a stranger in town passing through at the wrong time, God have mercy on your soul.

Mexico is not so different, just a bit more obvious than the corrupted city of San Francisco where I made my home for many years.

I suggest a re-viewing of Midnight Express with close attention to the fat crooked lawyer and the court system.

A Mexican friend of mine, who is a great and morally cognizant person, at one time told me that gringos helped to perpetuate the corruption in Mexico by paying mordida to traffic cops. Then last week she told me where I could buy a pirated CD of one of her favorite artists for only $50 Pesos. She failed to see the irony.

What you new people need to know is that Mexico, as every other place, Paris to Nairobi has nuances within its infrastructure you will not comprehend for a long time after arriving here and, therefore, you are subject to the same flim-flam as the country boy from Nebraska just arriving in The Big Apple. Be alert and cautious in all strange places! Once you understand your surroundings and the people you are dealing with you will be allright and can really enjoy the pleasure of having learned to live successfully in a place that is (or was) strange to you while all of your friends were afaid to leave Oshkosh and are sitting back there right now in Fred's Tavern and Package Store eating fried zucchini strips with Pabst Blue Ribbon .

Re: [Bubba] ARRIVED

I think the main difference between Mississippi and Mexico is that in Mexico you're expecting things to be different so you're more likely to watch for the differences. You can look around and see that you're not in Kansas anymore. Whereas in Mississippi you look around and except for the small number of complete sets of teeth, the bib overalls the shotguns in the back windows, the ever present wad of chewing tobacco in the cheek,...Hmmmmm,..Never mind.

Re: [Kip] ARRIVED

I think what has been referred to in previous posts about homes falling apart is the Chula Vista Norte development and all the problems they had with their new homes. There is a website somewhere where the people who owned homes set up pictures showing all the things that were happening to their "new" homes. At one point last year they even had a protest march right out near the highway. I do not know if the issues were ever resolved to anyone's satisfaction. Retirement Communities http://www.retirecommunities.com

Re: [Kip] ARRIVED

We had Ajijic Rentals.....same as Shoe. Margarita runs the "back office" which has everything to do with the excellent service we recieved as renters. This year we are returning as owners, but would still love to get our mitts on their fixit guys. Being a plumbing/electrical/mechanical/carpentry etc klutz, I need a go to guy for all kinds of things. Anybody know of a good general handyman in Ajijic? " let sleeping dogs lie"

Re: [Bubba] ARRIVED

The entire north shore of the lake is riddled with faultlines.Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Examples:

Even before last January's earthquake, the indoor market on the plaza in Chapala was slated to be torn down due to faultline damage. After protest by vendors and the public, it was renovated instead.

A friend of mine owns a large house from the Porfiriato (around the turn of the century), located on the street directly behind the Chapala market. His house is cracked and crumbling beyond repair due to slippage along the fault.

The hill area on Hidalgo in Chapala, as you head out of town (directly across from several banks and the Coffee Tree) is geologically unstable in the extreme. Last year a boulder the size of a small house rolled down the hill and crushed a house in its path, killing the young woman who lived there. She was 8 months pregnant.

The faultlines continue through Riberas, San Antonio, La Floresta, and Ajijic. Most people are plagued with minor cracking of walls and floors due to the constant shifting of the soil and the water table. Some areas are more affected than others. Age of the house doesn't appear to have anything to do with stability. A friend in San Antonio can no longer live in his house due to heaving of the floors. There is substantial cracking in business structures as well as in private homes.

In my own house, I have had a variety of problems. Two years ago the kitchen floor heaved up approximately 18 inches and then fell apart. Fortunately it was possible to have it repaired. During that same time period, serious structural cracking appeared in one wall; it was also possible to have this problem repaired.

After the earthquake last January (the epicenter was in Colima), new cracks began developing in my 70-year-old house and casita. At the moment, I am in the process of contracting to have the façade of the casita removed and replaced (torsion has caused the iron window frames to twist just enough to break the glass, and the cement portion of the wall has developed large cracks). Torsion also has caused glass breakage in a bedroom window and serious cracking in the affected wall.

Neighbors across the street have experienced severe structural cracking in several walls of their home.

Similar problems exist in other areas of town, including newly built and theoretically luxury homes west of the village.

The problems are not so much construction problems as faultline and other earth-movement problems. I am in no way complaining or otherwise stressed by the situation; this is NORMAL for the Lake Chapala area.

There is no law that requires disclosure of this type situation. Be careful where you rent or buy, and be cautious about your contractors if you build. Know your realtor and don't be bamboozled.

Re: [esperanza] ARRIVED

These aren't deal killers just things to take into consideration. The more we all know ahead of time the less pole-axed we're going to be if and when something does happen. The other thing is to put the blame on the real creator of the problem, in this case Mother Nature, not the guys who did the work.

That old song you all keep singing, "rent first, rent first, rent first", doth apply again.

Hmmm.... don't know if this would apply or have any worth at all , but in the NW they make some log houses out of "really big" logs. I'm not a builder so I may not explain this right, but they had some kind of semi attached board to allow for the movement of the wall as the logs shrank. I know that I'm not explaining this right, anybody out there know what I'm referring to that can explain it better?

I don't know if there is any way to do construction that would be "more forgiving" of natures "little' bumps and grinds, but it is something to think about.

Re: [Kip] ARRIVED

I don't know much about fault lines here or the building industry here. BUT, when KIP mentions a more forgiving type of building I just have to put in my two cents. Certainly all it is worth.

In the late 20's a guy named Buckminster Fuller (check Google) invented a structure called the Geodesic Dome. This sucker is about the strongest thing we can build out of wood, and most cost effective structure known to man. I know as I built one in Kentucky after a lot of study. I bought a partial kit (shell), from a company call Timberline, and had the shell up with my wife helping me in three days. This was to the point of ready for shingles (our choice of roofing). Tar paper was on. Windows in and doors were in. Sucker was buttoned up. We did have a young man help us some. Partial kit costs were about $9K in '89. I built it on a deck which I found out moved a little (KY has fault lines too) but it didn't bother the dome at all. Kept having to fix the deck. Think of a bee hive and if you remember your high school teacher telling you that you can stand on one, it is the same principle. Where ever you or something pushes on a dome the rest of the dome pushes back. We were hit by the winds of a tornado and it did nothing to the dome. It took doors off the barn and things like that but nothing to the house.

Now, while it didn't take very long to put the shell up, it took me better than 5+ years to finish up the inside. I made all the cabinets and did all plumbing, electrical and everything. Wife did get upset when I made the bar before I made anything for the kitchen. There were no square corners and it wasn't any fun. Doing it by myself was a pain also as my wife went to work. I was too retired to work to hard and had a quarter horse farm to take care of also. Some retirement!

I see no domes here and think one would really look out of place but it might tackle the settling problem a little bit.

The log shrinkage problem is a header system that is on the top of the logs between the logs and the roof. As the logs shrink this allows the roof to settle without any leakage. I forget what it is called also, but it does the trick. Now I don't know what this would do if the thing warps or sags. I guess if you warp a log long enough it might split.

A dome can warp and sag and all you would have to do is adjust the doors and windows, if that. Maybe shore it up a little if necessary. No big deal. Mine did a little but I never had to adjust anything. Mother nature has a hard time taking down domes, hurricane Hugo didn't do it, Nomo didn't do it, the typhon in the Philippines didn't do it the same year. None went down.

Re: [shoe] ARRIVED

You are so right! I'd forgotten about domes,..I love them! There are so many cool things you can do with them. I know the first ones to come out had some problems with leaking but if I remember right they solved that problem. Hmmmm, what if you covered the dome in some kind of stucco with a polymer? anyway something that gives added in? A stucco dome covered in Bouganvillia? I love it!They had some really great ones in California. One was HUGE with smaller domes connected and all covered in bright metallic red tiles. Oh yeah, they were very efficient because they had such great air flow (no corners) I wonder if there would be a way to do them in tile without them cracking? We've got the big Oregon Dome catalog around here someplace. I bet they have a website. Food for thought. Thanks Shoe,

Re: [Kip] ARRIVED

Kip, there are elastomeric coatings that you can put on domes that you can get in colors and looks like stucco and is quite forgiving. They have the properties of rubber. Made from polymers these days. Moves quite well. Doesn't leak and isn't too difficult to put on. Tile would be a different story as trying to fit in over the ridges might be difficult. There are a lot of ridges and points to a dome. A shake roof is also quite nice. There are a lot of dome sites on the net. Connecting a little one to a bigger one works out fine and gives lots of space. Heating and cooling works out well as air flow is great. Minimum restrictions. My plan was to add another dome to the 35' one that I had done but the marriage went south first as the job became more important to her than the horses, farm, and me. We are still friends and I helped her buy a house in town and store some of my stuff in her basement. I am furnishing a couple of rooms in her house with antique bedroom furniture and other antiques.

Anyway check Google for a lot of web sites for your reading pleasure.

You certainly could grow a lot of things over the domes to make it look very nice. Many flowers would climb the thing and make it very attractive.

Just some more thoughts. Not too many people like domes though as there is a lot of wasted space in them a lot of people think. I liked the feeling of the openness. My front room ceiling was 22' with a pentagon skylight up there that opened. I loved it. It also had two other skylights looking up. Loved it. Inside walls of the dome were done in 3/8" knotty pine, tongue and groove which didn't split if the dome moved while I was there in the 14 years, so it wasn't too bad. It did move some too. So it wasn't too bad. I had a loft too and that was closer to the pentagon and loved it.

shoe

Nothing is intrinsically good or evil, but its manner of usage may make it so. -St. Thomas Aquinas

Re: [shoe] ARRIVED

Ask the right questions.... Your dome sounds great. We were always going to build one but it just never happened. I loved not having to have any load bearing interior walls. The ones we were looking at had one wall that they designed all of the plumbing and electrical around. Went from first floor on up. Kind of a hidden hallway that had easy access for any kind of repair work. Very cool design. With a dome your imagination is about the only limitation for your interior design.

Re: [Kip] ARRIVED

The one wall idea sounds great but it also depends on how private you want your bathrooms to be and a few things like that, especially for guests. Ha! ha!

Electrical codes for outlets on the walls can make for some interesting problems. Forget codes, its usage that I care about. I don't like extension cords. I want a lot of outlets. Had them every 4 to 6 feet. I had the whole house on a ground fault box. Didn't need individual GFI outlets. Blew the inspectors mind that I went to that trouble. KY people didn't do that. Plumbing was inside as it freezes hard up there. Ran it behind the cabinets in the kitchen, and to the bathrooms. I only had three walls.

shoe

Nothing is intrinsically good or evil, but its manner of usage may make it so. -St. Thomas Aquinas